1. Field
The subject matter disclosed generally relates to the publishing industry. In particular, the subject matter relates to a system and method for tracing a document in a publication.
2. Related Prior Art
Adding a mark to qualify a document a book or a publication is a very old issue. The title of books can be qualified as a mark. It is not part of the content but it is a key component of the work to identify and retrieve it. The electronic indexation version of this method uses a similar principle. Typically, the ISBN (International Standard Book Number) allows for a unique referencing which is compatible with automation tracking and non-contact method of recognition like a barcode.
But while theses limited solutions exist at a publication level e.g. book, magazine etc., there is still no solution of that sort internal to the publication.
One of the areas that require internal tracking of documents within publications is the publishing and advertisement industry where every publication is usually made of several pieces of communication coming from various sources such as articles, ads, photos etc. The authors or sponsors of these articles/ads need to know how their pieces of communication are being handled. For example, the authors need to know if their publications/ads/documents were published with the right size, font, x/y ratio, position in the page, etc. so they can pay the invoice of the publisher.
Another example includes companies which require internal referencing and tracking of their ads and documents e.g. tracking a magazine, an ad, a flyer, a legal document, schematics, plans etc. within a company.
Theses publishing processes involves editing software made from various manufacturers. Nearly all of these softwares allow to store Meta-information aimed at qualifying the content without being part of it. To address the issues discussed above, publication artists (technicians) increase their use of Meta-Information imbedded in the document.
Even is some Meta-Information standard exist, JDF, XMP, DCM, and initiative to encourage its use, software vendors, service companies, distributors, publisher, printers, web publisher, work in a very segmented way, all see needs for their own extension. This leads to the creation of many redundant schema of Meta information without real bridge between them. Also, Meta information embedded in the document are prone to many alteration change and deterioration, either because one of the processes along the publishing chain does not recognize the Meta information, or because the information is not updated or not gathered it the final document.
Therefore, the life expectancy of Meta information is practically very short and they are frequently removed by processing software, either purposely or because they are unknown, or considered as unreliable or inappropriate.
Also the syndication of contents on the web makes the usage of meta-information more cumbersome than anticipated hence frequently loosing tracking capabilities.
Attempts had been done in the HTML world to find a certain rule for the Meta-information section but the presence of many method to encode the same information confuse publication artists of different levels and sectors of the industry, causing them to change the rules to what they understand of it.
In summary, there is a very high probability (90% of the time) that Meta-information is going to be destroyed along the production chain by other software.
Another problem associated with the usage of Meta-information is the frequent lack of conceptual capability to give additional information regarding the document content. It is frequently estimated that Meta-information is very separated from content because it is aimed at very different purpose. Therefore, information like geometry of a document, positioning, cropping or even final pagination is typically not properly encoded and decoded.
Therefore, there is a need for a system and method which allow for quickly tracking a document embedded within a publication without destroying or altering the content/shape of the document while increasing the probability that the information carried on across production an even across media keep the cargo message intact.